


meant to be

by nerdytardis



Category: Bill & Ted (Movies)
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Dorks in Love, Established Relationship, Fluff, Growing Old Together, Hurt/Comfort, Kissing, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-23
Updated: 2018-05-23
Packaged: 2019-05-10 09:24:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14734335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdytardis/pseuds/nerdytardis
Summary: After a concert, two sleepy rock stars reminisce about the past, look to the future, and take part in some excellent cuddling.aka, Bill and Ted growing old together





	meant to be

**Author's Note:**

> i imagine them being in their late 40s/early 50s here, so it's probably been at least 25 years since the battle of the bands  
> also, disclaimer, i know little to nothing about what tour life would be like, so sorry if there are any major inaccuracies 
> 
> i hope you enjoy!

Ted fell heavily into his bunk, the fatigue of the day weighing on his limbs. 

“I’m getting too old for this dude.” He said, trying to stretch out his legs as best as he could in the cramped space.    

Bill snickered down at him from where he was standing between the rows of bunks.  “Yeah you are dude.” 

Now Ted smiled, folding his arms under his head and watching Bill as he pulled on an old t-shirt.  “That does mean, since we are only a year apart, that you are also getting too old for this.”

Bill stopped for a moment, then leaned down and hovered over Ted with a matching grin, “Maybe,” he leaned in a little more and Ted could feel Bill’s breath on his face, “But you still can’t resist me.”  He closed the distance between them, and gave Ted a quick, chaste kiss before pulling all the way back again. 

Letting out a contented sigh, Ted closed his eyes and leaned back.  “You are correct yet again, my most esteemed friend.”

Ted could hear Bill chuckle, and then start to climb up into his bunk, always the one right above Ted’s, with a groan.  Ted opened his eyes enough so he could poke one of Bill’s dangling feet.

Finally landing into his own bed, Bill let out his own tired sigh.  “Dude?”

Ted straightened himself out a little and looked up towards where Bill now was.  “Yeah?”

“No one should ever, _ever_ , live on a bus.”

Another grin split Ted’s face.  “I hate to break it to you dude,” he said, “But we’ve been kinda living on a bus for like,” he tried to do the math in his head but gave up, “a long time.”

“I know,” Bill said, “It’s bogus.”

Ted nodded in agreement, even though Bill wouldn’t be able to see it, and a tired silence stretched out in the bunks. 

The rest of the crew was still overseeing the dismantling of their excellent, and exceedingly complicated, stage setup, while the princesses had decided to go get some late-night snacks with Death.  The only people on the bus besides them were all the way up-front, making this one of the very rare moments on a tour that they were actually alone—an opportunity Ted was not going to waste.    

After another beat of considering, Ted called up to the higher bunk.  “Hey Bill?”

“Yes Ted?”

“I miss you.”

There was the sound of rustling and then Bill was hanging over the edge of the bunk to look at him, “We have barely spent a moment apart in,” he paused for a moment, his eyebrows coming together, before he settled on: “a long time dude.  And we’ve been on tour for the last two months.  How can you miss me?”

“When we go on tour,” Ted said, “it’s not the same.  We don’t really get to just hang out and be _us_ ,” He shrugged, looking away for a moment, “Or even, like, sleep in the same bed y’know.  I miss stuff like _that_.”

After a moment of consideration, Bill pulled himself back into his bunk with a grunt; then slipped back down to the floor with another.  Ted couldn’t help but laugh.  “You even sound like an old dude, dude.”

Bill grumbled something that sounded like, “I just age like a normal person,” as he started to climb into Ted’s bunk.  Making a startled noise, Ted scooted back and tried to make more room.  But even after shifting, Bill just ended up essentially lying on top of Ted, with their arms wrapped around each other and their legs all jumbled together.

“Is this better dude?” Bill said, settling his head so that his nose was resting just below the soft spot where Ted’s jaw and neck met.

It wasn’t necessarily the most comfortable way they could have done this, but the familiar weight of Bill resting on his chest still felt _really_ good.  When they toured, they tried to find ways to still always be as close to each other as possible.  But they never really got to do this, just rest against each other without any fans or reporters or roadies in sight. 

After adjusting his shoulders a little more, Ted let out a long breath and said, “Absolutely.” 

One of Ted’s hands was resting along the hem of Bill’s t-shirt and he slid the fabric up to start working soft circles into a spot above Bill’s hip with his thumb.  Humming happily, Bill nuzzled into Ted a little more. 

After a beat of this, much nicer, silence, a thought popped into Ted’s head.  “This reminds me of when we used to take naps together in the back of the van.” He said, smiling at the memory. 

Bill let out a surprised snort, a cute little noise that made warmth bloom across Ted’s chest. 

“Those were some excellent times.” Ted said, staring wistfully up at the top of his bunk as his sleepy brain spiraled backwards in time, back to when all of this was still just a dream. 

“Most excellent.” Bill agreed, smiling as his own thoughts obviously moved in a similar direction.  He pressed his face into Ted’s shoulder, curling into him even more.  “Especially once you spilled the beans.”

Ted paused with his circles, his eyebrows coming together in confusion, “What beans?”

Bill made a noise and reached back to tap blindly at Ted’s hand.  “Keep doing that dude.” Ted obeyed with a smile as Bill said, “And I am obviously referring to you totally confessing your love for me.”

“Oh.” Ted pressed a kiss to Bill’s hair, “Those beans.”

“Yeah dude.  It was the most bodacious night.  We had just played this really cool gig in Las Vegas and you had my baseball hat on, and I went to take it back, you kinda leaned down towards me,”

When Bill was tired, he tended to ramble and Ted let the sound of Bill’s voice wash over him, the words rumbling against his shoulder in the most comforting way. 

“and then you got all flustered and I was like ‘what’s up dude?’ and you were like ‘I love you dude’ and I was all ‘what?’ and then—”

Bill stopped, obviously considering something, and Ted waited to see what was going to come next from his friend’s tired train of thought. 

“Do you ever wonder what would have happened if we had failed history?”

This was not what Ted had expected, and in his moment of surprise he stopped rubbing the little circles into Bill’s back again.  The new stillness came alongside an abrupt change of atmosphere.  This was a larger question, one that even Bill seemed surprised to hear, even though he had been the one to ask it.

“Well,” Ted finally said, “That was a while ago.” 

“Yeah dude, it was.” Bill said, biting his lip a little, “None of this would have happened if Rufus hadn’t shown up.”

Ted found himself hugging Bill a little tighter, like the mere thought of it would take him away.

“But we didn’t fail dude.” Ted started his circles again and reveled in the way it helped Bill relax against him again, “We crushed that report.”

Letting out a breath, Bill seemed to accept that.  But there was still tension running through him. 

Considering the bogus nature of what was clearly still running through Bill’s head, Ted decided to try again.  He wasn’t always the best at being reassuring—social cues had never really been his strong suit—but he always tried everything he could think of to make Bill feel better.

“And even if I had gone to Alaska,” Ted said, his voice catching a little despite himself, “We still would’ve ended up together.”

Bill considered that.  “Do you really think so?”

“Totally.” Ted said, letting his imagination actually look at one of his biggest fears for the first time in years, “I would have written to you, like every day; when I came home we’d spend all our time together.  And you know I’m bad at secrets so I’d still end up telling you all about my feelings.”

Ted pressed another kiss to the top if Bill’s head.  “Even if we didn’t start the most popular band in the world, create world peace and everything, we would still be together and happy.  You’re my best friend—dude, we literally beat death together.” He shrugged a little, “I think we’re just meant to be.”

There was a pause, a soft moment filled with just quiet breathing, and then Bill was sitting up, shifting so that he was resting on a propped up elbow and looking down at Ted.  They watched each other for a moment—silently reassuring each other that they were here; that they were really this lucky. 

Without a word Bill leaned in and pressed a kiss to Ted’s lips.  Ted responded in kind, leaning up into it and bringing a hand up to Bill’s hair. 

When Bill finally pulled back, he was smiling again and Ted’s heart beat a little happy rhythm at the sight.  Neither of them really had the space or free hands to air guitar, but the electric joy of it still radiated between them; soon they were both giddily grinning again. 

“I love you dude.” Bill said as he settled himself back into his spot against Ted’s chest.

“I love you too dude.” Ted left his hand in Bill’s hair and started running his callused fingers through the short curls at the base of his skull. 

They stayed like that, happy and surrounded by each other.  Ted’s eyelids were starting to fall closed, as his need for sleep started to finally catch up with him, when Bill spoke up again. 

“Maybe, since you are getting to be such an old dude—”

“Don’t you mean a righteous, ruggedly-handsome old dude?” Ted started to yawn half-way through the phrase, making Bill snort. 

 “Of course,” Bill leaned up to plant a quick kiss to his jaw.  “I was just thinking, maybe…we should start touring a little less.”

Ted blinked.  While the idea itself was a bit of a surprise, what shocked Ted the most was how non-heinous it sounded. 

“That would be,” he blinked again, “awesome.”  They could spend more time at home, maybe get a dog, finally.  The rest of the band could visit all the time and they could really write again, without having to rush new albums out in-between globe-trotting tours.  They could sleep in for once. 

As cool as it has been to be living his dream, this new life sounded kind of perfect.  Ted smiled down at Bill. 

“Yeah?” Bill asked.

“Yeah.” Ted nodded, “We should bring it up to everyone else in the morning.”

“Epic.” Bill grinned, and Ted wondered what he was thinking, what new dreams he had running through his own head—Ted couldn’t wait to hear about all of them, to make them a reality for the dude he had been high-key in love with since junior high. 

Ted fell asleep that night with Bill curled against him and a smile on his lips.  When he woke up the next morning, there was a crick in his neck and one of his arms had completely fallen asleep under the weight of Bill—but he was still smiling. 

**Author's Note:**

> i'm literally gonna cry when we get the first trailer for bill and ted 3, i love these old dudes so much lmao
> 
> anyway, thanks for reading!


End file.
